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Show | _ESTELLE PARSONS: Her RealLife Is Harder Than Acting ‘*] was hoping the baby would be girl,” said Estelle Parsons. “We even had a name picked out, Martha Abbie. I can still remember, after I'd given birth, hearing the doctor’s surprised voice— ‘Another baby!’ No one had in Central Park, swims at the Y, shops in the supermarket, and seldom bothers with make-up or hairstyling. “Once I made movies, everybody started asking me questions, invading my privacy,”’ Estelle says. “My daughters’ friends suddenly wanted to come home with them and look at me. Andall the time my work was the same. It's just that people thought of me differently.” expected twins.” No one expected Mother’s success as a movie star 15 years later, either. Least of all, Estelle Parsons herself. Herlife had been concentrated on being a mother and a good, solid stage actress, off-Broadway and on. But with- in the past three years, she has won an Oscar for her first film, “Bonnie and Clyde,” and an Academy Award nomination for her second, “Rachel, Rachel.” Her most recent film is “I Never Sang for My Father.” About her instant success, Estelle ‘The folks in Marblehead, Mass., Estelle’s home town, must have known, however, that the granddaughter of successful attorney Starr Parsons would make an impact on life. She studied law for a year at Boston U. What ‘she learned from that was “how those men were training for a man’s world—ruthless, competitive, cut-anddried, ambiiious. That's not for me.” Estelle went to New York to work on the “Today” show, advancing from production assistant to a producer of short features. That, in turn, led to says: “I never wanted it!” Her open, un-made-up face becomes serious. “To me, success meant being drained. It meant hard work and little money, working in the theatre, but it never occurred to me I would do anything else.” The Parsons’life style hasn’t changed. Award. Estelle Parsons is not a public person. The first time I met her, two years ago, she spoke of her need for privacy. Shestill lives in the same apartment on She was tan, wholesome-looking but musical revues and her début in an offBroadway play, “Mrs. Dally Has a Lover,” which won a “Theatre World” New York’s West Side that she took rather plump. She was not dating any- after her divorce from writer Richard Gehman. The twins were two years old then. She still rides a bus rather than a one special. She put most of her time cab, plays tennis on the public courts into an open-air Shakespeare production in New York’s Central Park. At that time she was explaining why she What in the World! The Cigar-BoxMuseum You've heard do most of the 880 Clubs across the of the little acorns from which big oak trees grow—well, there’s a good-sized country—whichalso boasts its own full- blooded Sioux Indian consultant when it meets at nearby Camp Puh’tok. Chief Sunrise taught the boys how to recognize Indian artifacts, and they began filling their cigar boxes with them. Eventually there were enough artifacts to form the nucleus of a museum. Contract for Spouses No matter how Chief Sunrise and friends museum in the Baltimore, Md., area which sprang from a couple of cigar boxes. The Salvation Army Boys’ Club there has an Indian lore program—as great the love and trust between husband and wife, business is business. So says Harriet F. Pilpel, an attorney who has served on various Presidential Commissions concerned with the status of women. If a couple anticipates working together for financial gain, she says, their agreement should be put down on paper with the help of a lawyer while Estelle Parsons and her twins at herlatest premiere didn’t hire a maid to ease her busy schedule. “I don’t like help around. I like to be alone when I’m alone. If I'm not sleeping much, I want to be able to get up and prowl around, wear anything, with no one to bother me.” When I saw her recently, Estelle Parsons had begun to adjust to faine. “I was uptight then,” she recalled. She was 20 pounds thinner. Her complexion was fresh, glowing—and still un-made- up. At 43 (“I couldn't face 30, but the 40’s are all right”), she is prettier than her movie roles would indicate. Romances? “Nobody,” she answered and changed the subject. Later she added, as part of her outspoken case against fame, “I don’t want to make an effort to have a boy friend. . . but it would be wonderful if it would just happen. It’s hard for a person in my position to have a meaningful relationship. I want someone who is medium bright. But not many men I'd want would want me. They just want a good wife and mother, not a woman who likes to discuss the world.” Estelle’s daughters obviously come the coupleare “alive, friendly, and competent.” The document may never be needed, but “if one spouse should die, then it becomes a question of what their understanding was.” If there should be a serious disagreement—or a divorce—it could be possible that a “grave injustice” might arise. A wife, for instance, could work some 30 years, helping to build a joint million-dollar estate; she could then find herself a widow with everything she had helped to earn in her husband’s name only—which he’d then willed to someone else. first with her. “I never got serious with a date, at least not for long, because he would latch on to me. Martha arid Abbie are great kids.” (Their mother split the original name choice, one for each twin.) “They’re both good cooks, better than I am these days. They can * take care of themselves. [ tell them if they're not on their own by the time they reach 16, I’m going to kick them out and move to Europe.” Estelle says that with a straight face, but then she has to cover her sudden giggle with her fingers. Martha and Abbie . . . there’s something familiar about the names, but the reference is elusive. Were the girls named after someone special? “An actress once told me that those were the names of the old ladies in ‘Arsenic and Old Lace,’”Estelle says. “But that“ was just coincidence. If I had known, I never would have doneit.” And if Estelle Parsons had known how troublesome success would be to her, she might never have made “Bonnie and Clyde,” either. —TERRY SCHAERTEL is notably back in style, as it comple- » ments the trend toward longer, floppier, and decorated clothing. Many old mir- Headlong into the Past Antique shops from coast to coast are reporting a new run on old mirrors. Ornate mirrors that have been long stored away in the attics of old mansions, particularly in the South and Texas, are now finding a rebirth. As today’s young people rediscover the joy of creating their own handiwork, such rococo objects— that can never again be made in an age geared to mass production—are becoming highly prized. The big mirror Cherubs and friend rors will be displayed at the National Antiques Show, representing some 300 collections from all over the U.S., which opens this week in New York. Example: a hand-carved wood mirror with gold leaf, 18th-century French, |